The invention relates to means for monitoring the daily injection requirements of an insulin or injection-dependent person, and a means for facilitating tracking of injections taken or not taken, on a daily basis.
It is especially important for those persons taking a daily series of injections to keep an accurate count of those injections taken or not taken in order to allow the medication to produce the desired effect. It is very important for an insulin-dependent person to insure that he has taken his daily allotted number of shots. A person who is insulin-dependent needs an accurate scorecard. Making a mistake and either taking too much or too little--either of which is totally unacceptable--can be catastrophic. For a diabetic, duplication of a daily dose or doses of insulin can result in severe insulin shock which can cause brain damage or even death. Failure to administer one or more doses of insulin results in high blood sugar levels. This high blood sugar level causes condition called ketosis or acidosis. Ketones are organic acid compounds in the bloodstream. These acid compounds have a cumulative effect that will degrade vital body organs of an affected individual. A diabetic who misses a number of injections (say seven), stands a good chance of death. It is, therefore, extremely important to have a means of monitoring one's daily injections so as to enable a person to be secure that he has taken his injection, and has not taken more than he should.
There are prior art devices which are designed to hold only a few syringes and associated medications. Some are relatively large and cumbersome; some provide for containing a means of unnecessary, temporary, refrigeration of medication. Others are arranged to contain additional items which are needed only occasionally. Most importantly, much of what is available does not give an individual any way to monitor whether or not such person has taken a scheduled injection. Further, most prior art devices do not have the availability to monitor a full week of medication, such as provided by the invention. Additionally, some prior art kits are not adequately durable for sustained usage or are too cumbersome or are not large enough to contain everything needed for a full week of injections. Further, prior art devices or kits fail to provide a convenient means for securely disposing of spent syringes.